Luke Cage wasn't the first black superhero to appear in comics. That honor belongs to the Black Panther. Luke also isn't the first African-American superhero. The Falcon claims that title (remember, the Panther is African, not American). But Luke's place in comics history is carved in stone, because he is the first black superhero to star in his own ongoing title. That's a milestone that deserves recognition.
When I first laid eyes on Luke as a wide-eyed kid back in the day, he was like nothing I'd seen before in comics. It was on the cover of HERO FOR HIRE #3, where Luke was riding shotgun on the tail end of a helicopter, his shirt all torn and "battle-ravaged" like Sgt. Fury's always looked like. There was Luke, smashing the rear blade of the copter with his fists while in flight, with the crazed villain of the issue, Colonel Gideon Mace, firing shots which just bounced off of Luke's steely hide. The Panther and the Falcon, both of whom I love to this day, were cool but basically seemed to be the "costumed acrobat" kind of superhero at the time. Luke was the first black hero that had actual super powers. Kind of the Superman-equivalent to their Batman.
Col. GIdeon Mace was this kind of paramilitary nutcase who decided that he wanted to "awaken the conscience of America" because of how he was treated by the military. How he was going to accomplish this was unclear. He saw himself as being deprived of becoming "the next General Patton" because of a military injury that resulted in him replacing his hand with a mace (thus the name, duh). So instead he became the next Oliver North. Expect to see Col. Mace hosting his own Fox News show anyday now.
Anyway, that iconic cover -- well, its iconic to me -- was depicted by the late, great Billy Graham. And when I decided to have someone draw a homage to that cover, I found the perfect artist in Cedric Nocon. For those that don't know Cedric, he's an alumni of Wildstorm and has done work for Image, Marvel and DC. This was his first commission for me and I can tell you he hit a homerun. Great affordable prices, fast turnaround, constant updates during the process, and the result, well you can see that for yourself. He's one of those best-kept secrets for people who commission art, and I'm revealing it right here for my fellow art fans. He's worth taking the time to check out and you won't be disappointed.
You can contact Cedric Nocon through his website cedricnocon.com. You can enjoy his dynamic artwork by looking up a few inches above this text.
